The UK's First Ever Electric Vehicle Only Lane is on the Way!

For a long time, buses have been enjoying stress and traffic free travel in their own dedicated lanes, while the rest of us helplessly watch on as our own speedometers never pass 10mph. It’s over! Now, we can get access to our own exclusive ‘fast lanes’ too, the how is simple - all you have to do is drive an electric vehicle.

Back in January of this year the Government announced a pot of £40 million would be made available to support the uptake of electric and hybrid vehicles. Cities around the country all made a bid for a slice of the cash and Nottingham was among the winners.

Nottingham has decided to use their money to build the UK’s first ever electric lane. The Eco-Expressway will be 6 miles long adapted from an existing route in the city and will run from the city centre to Vale Road in Colwick. Nottingham City Council now also has a new fleet of all electric park and ride buses on order for use in the new electric lanes. The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2017 with an estimated total cost of £6.1 million.

London, Milton Keynes and Bristol also shared a portion of the £40 million made available and plan to provide more charging points, free parking for electric vehicles and priority road schemes of their own. Milton Keynes and Bristol Councils will be using some of the money to fund short term loans of electric vehicles, so people can try before they buy and better understand the differences in ownership.

The Government has been working hard to try and tempt people to buy an electric vehicle. Many benefits already exist. Firstly, electric vehicles have no CO2 emissions and hybrids have vastly reduced emissions which lessens the amount of road tax an owner is liable for. If you are a regular visitor to London, then going emissions free in an electric vehicle will save you the cost of the congestion charge and the Government is still providing financial help to those buying an electric vehicle. Although sales of electric cars are going up, there is still concern over whether the UK’s target of having 9% of all cars on the road electric will be met by the 2020 deadline.